535Dearborn Avenue . . . Chicago, Ill. Cable Address . . . . "Medic, Chicago" Subscription price . . . . . Five dollars per annum in advance [For other information see second page following reading matter] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1911 THE REQUIREMENTS OF RECTAL FEEDING From early times physicians have attempted to introduce nutriment into the body in some way other than by mouth when natural feeding was difficult or impossible. Thus has arisen the practice of rectal alimentation. One needs only to review the literature of this topic, or to subject to critical examination the clinical findings in every-day experience, in order to learn how uncertain are the evidences of real nutritive gain from this widely employed procedure. A few years ago, before the teachings of recent experimental investigation on digestion and absorption in the alimentary tract became current, it was difficult to understand why milk or eggs introduced by rectum should fail to satisfy the needs of the organism just as they do when administered by mouth. But
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A 1911 study studied this question.